Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Beach Towel Bath Robes

Before we left for our Florida vacation, I promised to give more details about the beach towel robes I made for the kiddos. Better late than never, right?

As soon as I saw this pattern for beach robes on MADE, I knew I wanted to buy it and make one for each of my kids to use after swimming. Now that summer has passed, we still use them for drying off after bath time.

I purchased two beach towels at Target for less than $5 each. These thin towels were the perfect thickness to work with, not too bulky at all. Ignore the single fold bias tape you see in the photo. I had never used store-bought bias tape before and didn't realize until after the fact that what I really needed was extra-wide double fold tape. Lesson learned.

I have to say, the $8 I spent on this pattern was money well spent! The pattern comes in three sizes (9-18 month, 18 month-3T, and 3T-4T). I made Jake's robe using the 9-18 month size, and Bailey's is 3T-4T. The pattern includes detailed instructions and step-by-step photos for many different options...short sleeves or long sleeves, partial ties or full ties, lined hood, or no hood at all. I chose to make my robes with short sleeves, unlined hoods, and partial ties (meaning they are sewn into the sides of the robe instead of wrapping all the way around through loops like a belt). My towels were large enough that I only needed to use one towel for each robe, but I barely squeaked by on Bailey's. Had I decided to go with long sleeves or the full tie, I definitely would have needed a second towel. This is such an easy, versatile, and affordable pattern...I would recommend it to anyone!

My kids love their bath robes! I'm thinking of using a version of this pattern (no hood and long sleeves) to make some snuggly fleece robes for the wintertime, maybe as Christmas gifts. I will be keeping an eye out for more great patterns from MADE!